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The Brewers’ World Series commemorative issue is now available for purchase.
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Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
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Welcome to Awards Week, when we are reminded on a nightly basis that baseball stardom can be hard to predict.
Taking my best guesses at who will win the six non-rookie player awards from the BBWAA (including a new one this year, Reliever of the Year in each league), I found a common denominator: humble beginnings. Both MVPs were traded as teenagers and the four pitchers likely to win Cy Young and Reliever of the Year awards were all bypassed in the first round of the draft, waiting anywhere from two through seven rounds to be picked after playing at non-major college programs. Here are their long paths to greatness:
AL MVP: Yordan Alvarez, Astros
Traded by Dodgers at age 19 without playing an affiliated game.
NL MVP: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs
Traded by Mets at age 19 after six games in A ball.
AL Cy Young Award: Cam Schlittler, Yankees
Seventh-round pick out of Northeastern after 219 players were picked.
NL Cy Young Award: Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers
Second-round pick out of Crowder Junior College after 62 players were picked.
AL Reliever of the Year: Bryan Baker, Rays
On fourth organization after starting as 11th round pick out of University of North Florida after 319 players were picked.
NL Reliever of the Year: Mason Miller, Padres
Third-round pick out of Gardner-Webb after 96 players were picked.
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2026 Rookie Class Had Historic Depth
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Mets righthander Nolan McLean won 12 games with a 3.16 ERA and 194 strikeouts—becoming only the fifth rookie to reach such thresholds since 1969. The other four in Rookie of the Year voting all finished first (John Montefusco, Dwight Gooden and Hideo Nomo) or second (Kodai Senga). McLean? He could not even make the list of the three finalists.
Voters favored position players Sal Stewart, Carson Benge and JJ Wetherholt in NL ROY balloting.
The AL is just as deep. Look what happened to Chase DeLauter of the Guardians. He is only the ninth qualified rookie since 2015 to post an OPS+ of 131 or better. Each of the previous eight won the award! DeLauter was not even a finalist.
I keep pointing out that the rule changes and increase in velocity and spin over the past 5–10 years are making baseball more of a young man’s game. And this rookie class is more proof. We have never seen such a deep field of rookies.
Keep this in mind as the hot stove season unfolds. Teams are more likely than they were a decade ago to commit to a rookie than spend on mid-30s veterans as placeholders.
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| Year (Number) |
Top Rookies |
| 1. 2026 (9) |
Kevin McGonigle, Carson Benge, Chase DeLauter |
| 2. 2015 (8) |
Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor |
| 2. 2019 (8) |
Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez, Fernando Tatis Jr. |
| 4. 1982 (7) |
Wade Boggs, Cal Ripken Jr., Ryne Sandberg |
| 4. 1987 (7) |
Mark McGwire, Benito Santiago, Devon White |
| 4. 2018 (7) |
Ronald Acuña Jr., Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres |
| 4. 2023 (7) |
Corbin Carroll, Gunnar Henderson, Yainer Diaz |
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The Postseason That Killed Slug
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Home runs had been the coin of the realm in postseason baseball. The previous six World Series champions all finished among the top four in most regular season home runs. The Brewers redefined what wins in October. Last in the NL in home runs, and 28th overall, Milwaukee rode a game built on speed, contact and opposite field hitting to the title.
As Milwaukee first baseman Jake Bauers said about teams still playing the launch angle game, “It doesn’t win any more. It may work once in a while. But it’s not something that’s sustainable consistently with the way pitching is today. And when you rely on that kind of hitting, and it’s not working, you have nothing. No other way to win a game.”
Now let’s flip the coin and look at postseason baseball from the pitching perspective. We just witnessed a postseason with a record high in fastball velocity (96.1, up from 93.6 in just 10 years) and the lowest slug in the 19 seasons of pitch tracking (.336).
The rate of at-bats per home run in the postseason slowed by 35% from last year to its lowest level in 12 years:
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Slugging absolutely cratered this postseason to a level we had not seen in the pitch tracking era.
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Why was it so hard to slug this postseason? Pitching is that good. The biggest causes of the lack of slug are:
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- The Brewers. With a staff built on velocity—starters who pound four-seamers and relievers who attack with power sinkers—the Brewers allowed a .243 slug, the lowest by any team that played at least three postseason games since at least 2008.
- Velocity. Pitchers threw a record 848 pitches at 99+ mph this postseason. That’s more than in the seven postseasons between 2008–14 combined.
- Fastballs. They are back and faster than ever. Teams threw the highest percentage of fastballs in eight postseasons (59.7%, including cutters). The slug against them hit a pitch tracking low (.354).
- Off-speed. While breaking pitches took a sharp drop this postseason (mostly because of the Rays, who used them only 11% of the time), off-speed use has been higher the past two seasons than ever tracked. Last year was the postseason of the splitter (a record 6.8%). This year was the postseason of the changeup (a record 11.2%).
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The bottom line: pitching is too good to think you are going to win just with home runs. Remember, too, the Brewers buzzed through the postseason with 13 games and 18 days off. Manager Pat Murphy could keep using his high-leverage relievers with the best stuff because his team dispatched the Padres and Dodgers in four games each, earning recharging rest in between.
Overall, this postseason teams played more games without a homer (39) and won more games without a homer (12) than in any of the past 12 postseasons. Milwaukee led the way in this low-slug environment. The Brewers went 5–0 in games in which they did not homer. Thanks to expanded playoffs, they are the first team to go 5–0 in homerless postseason games, surpassing the 1907 Cubs (4–0) and 1922 Giants (4–0).
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Rob Tringali/Getty Images
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In his 12th year managing the Rays, Kevin Cash showed adaptability with his personnel, as did GM Erik Neander and the front office in building the team. Typically at the head of the curve, the Rays saw pitching changing and knew offense would need to change, too. Tampa Bay morphed into a small-ball, contact heavy, risk-taking team, a methodology their analytics-heavy approach deemphasized in the past.
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In 11 previous years under Cash, Tampa Bay had never been in the top half of major league teams in contact rate. Suddenly, this season they led MLB.
Rays’ Contact Rate Under Cash
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| Year |
Contact% |
MLB Rank |
| 2015 |
75.3% |
25 |
| 2016 |
72.5% |
30 |
| 2017 |
71.7% |
30 |
| 2018 |
74.2% |
21 |
| 2019 |
73.4% |
20 |
| 2020 |
70.0% |
29 |
| 2021 |
71.7% |
29 |
| 2022 |
73.4% |
23 |
| 2023 |
72.4% |
24 |
| 2024 |
72.1% |
26 |
| 2025 |
74.3% |
18 |
| 2026 |
79.3% |
1 |
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Coming off a career-best season, Brandon Lowe is one of the more fascinating values on the free agent market. With Pittsburgh, in the manner of Jeff Kent, Lowe provided corner-type power at second base (35 homers, 96 RBI, career bests) while improving defensively and taking the most plate appearances of his career (656). It was a huge platform season. He might be the best left-handed bat available.
But there is the age question as it relates to length of contract. As the game gets younger, buying the mid-30s years of a player, particularly in the middle infield, gets riskier. Lowe will play next season at 32. (He turns 33 in July).
Over the past eight seasons, only seven qualified middle infielders age 33 and older posted an OPS+ greater than 99. That’s less than half as many as did so in each of the three eight-season windows before this trend. The fall-off this year included the likes of Marcus Semien, Trevor Story, Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson, Jake Cronenworth, Jeff McNeil and Trea Turner (all 32–35 with an OPS+ of 90 or lower).
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| Years |
Qualified Middle Infielders Age 33+, >99 OPS+ |
| 2019–26 |
7 |
| 2011–18 |
15 |
| 2003–10 |
16 |
| 1995–2002 |
16 |
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